Gunthorpe Village celebrates the opening of a community built nature reserve, with tree planting by Nottinghamshire County Councillor Roger Jackson

A decade long community effort to create a new nature reserve has come to fruition with a ceremonial tree planting.

The village of Gunthorpe has officially opened its own nature reserve, providing a much need green space for residents to enjoy and allows wildlife to thrive.

The occasion was marked with the planting of a tree sapling, grown from a Sherwood Forest acorn, and planted by the area's county and district council representative Roger Jackson, assisted by pupils from the village school.

Mr Jackson said: "This has been a huge community effort and we may have had our battles, but we managed to get through it and can now celebrate all the hard work.

“With climate change we know we need more green space, more tree planting, more recreational areas.

“The brilliant thing about this is that now other parishes and villages can look at what has been done here as a blueprint and hopefully do the same.

"This is a long term investment in the local community — this will be a legacy for Gunthorpe, for all of our children and future generations to enjoy nature.”

In 2014, Gunthorpe Parish Council bought a strip of land along the banks of the River Trent and nine acres on the outskirts of the village with the aim of keeping it as natural as possible.

Over the next ten years a team of hard-working volunteers and tradesmen transformed the over grown and unmanaged land into a beautiful and accessible green space, with hundreds of metres of new hedgerows, fencing and footpaths.

In 2023 Newark and Sherwood District Council granted the area Local Nature Reserve Status, protecting it from development, and in the spring of this year work began on planting thousands of trees to enhance biodiversity.

To date, 2,114 trees have been planted on site, with help from village groups, organisations, and children from Gunthorpe Village School helping out.

Lesley Jeffery, vice-chairman of Gunthorpe Parish Council, said: "When the council initially discussed buying the land, we wanted to keep it as natural as possible and with the effects of climate change that is more important than ever.

"It's lovely to see so many get involved because this is what community is all about — and hopefully we will see this area continue to grow and develop in the years to come."

Peter Platten has been involved with the project since its inception and was enthusiastic about the benefits of the nature reserve.

He said: "This place was a mess, it was neglected and people didn’t feel safe so the footpath was rarely used.

“So this had always been a bone of contention for the village, so when it came up for sale we jumped on it.

“After all of the work that has been done it has now become a very busy place, which is fantastic.

“We’ve got badgers, we’ve got foxes, we’ve got deer, rabbits, voles, kingfishers, everything. When you step in that field you hear nothing but birds.

“But we’re not doing it for us, we’re doing it for our children and grandchildren. Mother Earth is our oasis and and we’ve got to look after it.”